Saw blades come in a variety of shapes and forms. For example, saw blades can be of the circular type that have teeth that extend around the periphery of the circular saw blade. Saw blades can also be of the reciprocating type that are linear and have teeth along one peripheral edge of the linear blade. The teeth on the saw blades are sharp and can injure a person handling the blades if care is not exercised. Additionally, the sharp teeth on the saw blades can damage other objects or goods that inadvertently come in contact with the teeth. Furthermore, the teeth can have special tips, such as carbide tips, that can be damaged if the blade is mishandled or dropped. Therefore, saw blades are typically packaged with a protective cover that encloses the teeth and prevents accidental injury or damage to a person, other goods, or the teeth of a saw blade.
A typical prior art cover used on saw blades is a flexible plastic tubing that has a single cut through the tubing wall along the length of the tubing, such as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,057. The tubing is wrapped around the periphery of the saw blade with the teeth extending into an interior of the tubing through the cut along the length of the tubing. The tubing thereby encloses the teeth of the saw blade and provides a protective cover for the teeth of the saw blade. Because the tubing has a circular cross section while the saw blade is relatively flat, the tubing is not close fitting to the saw blade and is substantially thicker than the saw blade. The tubing thereby provides a protective cover that significantly adds to the overall thickness of the protected saw blade.
Other prior art covers include a cardboard cutout with a folded pocket. The cutout provides protection for the saw blade and, provided with hole(s), can be used for retail peg hook display. The cutout may be dimensioned to protect a plurality of saw blades within the cutout. However, the cutout must be thick enough to provide the strength required to support the saw blade(s). Additionally, the overall size of a cutout is larger than that of the saw blade such that a saw blade(s) within the cutout occupies more space than a saw blade(s) without the cutout. The cutout thereby provides a protective cover that adds to a thickness and overall size of a protected saw blade(s).
The increased overall thickness and/or size of the saw blade(s) having a protective cover increases the space that each saw blade(s) with a protective cover occupies. For example, the increased overall thickness substantially increases the height of a stack of saw blades having a protective cover over the height of a stack of the same number of saw blades without a protective cover. The increased thickness and/or overall size has a number of drawbacks. For example, the increased overall thickness and/or size requires a larger display area at a store to display a given number saw blades over those without a protective cover. Additionally, the saw blades are typically shipped in boxes of a fixed dimension. Because saw blades with protective covers have an overall thickness substantially larger than saw blades without protective covers, less saw blades with protective covers can be fit within the fixed dimension box than the number of saw blades that can fit within the fixed dimension box that do not have protective covers. The increased overall size of saw blades having protective covers also requires the fixed dimension box to have inner dimensions that are larger than a diameter of the saw blades in order to accommodate the protective covers. The decreased number of saw blades with a protective cover that can fit in the fixed dimension box and the needed larger inner dimensions of the fixed dimension box increases the box waste per saw blade packaged in the box and the cost of the box. For example, if the fixed dimension box can normally hold twenty saw blades that do not have a protective cover but can only hold five saw blades that have a protective cover, the box waste per blade is increased four fold and results in more packaging waste per saw blade shipped to a buyer. Furthermore, the larger inner dimensions and the decreased capacity of the fixed dimension box increases the packaging and shipping cost for a provider of saw blades with a protective cover.
Therefore, what is needed is a protective cover that protects the teeth of a saw blade or stack of saw blades but results in overall dimensions that are less than that achieved with the use of prior art protective covers. By reducing one or more of the overall dimensions of the saw blades with a protective cover, the stack height for a given number of saw blades can be reduced, more saw blades having a protective cover can be placed in a fixed dimension box, the inner dimensions of the fixed dimension box can be reduced, the amount of box waste per saw blade can be reduced, the cost of packaging the saw blades can be reduced, and/or the amount of space required to display a given number of blades with protective cover(s) in a store can be reduced.
A difficulty with providing a more compact protective cover and display means for saw blade(s) is reduced sensitivity and/or failure of security devices that may be packaged with the saw blade(s). Security devices, such as electronic article surveillance tags, can experience a reduced capacity and/or fail to provide the required security function if attached directly to or in close proximity to a metal object, such as a saw blade. Many retailers require that these security devices be installed in retail packaging. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a security device that works properly with retail packaged saw blade(s) but does not add excessive bulk or size to the packaged saw blade(s).
Yet another difficulty in providing a compact protective cover for saw blade(s) is the need to provide indicia, such as consumer or retail related information, on the packaging. The reduced size of a compact protective cover reduces the area of printable packaging and decreases the amount of indicia that can be effectively displayed and conveyed on the packaged saw blade(s). Therefore, it is desirable to provide a compact protective cover while retaining the ability to convey desired information on the packaged saw blade(s).